Five lawyers now disputing wealthy woman's estate

Friday

Jun 14, 2013 at 2:00 AM

PORTSMOUTH — Two more lawyers are contesting the last will and trust of the late Geraldine Webber on the grounds that Webber was incompetent and/or unduly influenced by police Sgt. Aaron Goodwin when she revised her estate plans to leave Goodwin the bulk of her wealth.

Elizabeth Dinan

PORTSMOUTH — Two more lawyers are contesting the last will and trust of the late Geraldine Webber on the grounds that Webber was incompetent and/or unduly influenced by police Sgt. Aaron Goodwin when she revised her estate plans to leave Goodwin the bulk of her wealth.

One of them, Portsmouth attorney Christopher Keenan, is representing a client named Michael Williams, who was listed in Webber's 2009 will as a $25,000 beneficiary. Like many others named in Webber's 2009 will, which was drafted by Portsmouth attorney Jim Ritzo, Williams was omitted from a subsequent will and trust that Webber endorsed in May 2012.

Keenan said Williams worked at a city supermarket and often helped Webber. Keenan said Thursday that he is preparing a motion to join cases recently filed by attorneys Paul McEachern and David Eby, who are both challenging Webber's will and trust on behalf of other former beneficiaries.

Derry attorney Lisa Bellanti also filed an appearance with the court, noting she is representing Webber's disabled grandson, Brett, who was a $25,000 beneficiary of his grandmother's 2009 will, but was cut from the 2012 estate plans drafted by Hampton attorney Gary Holmes. Bellanti said she had no comment.

McEachern alleges Goodwin used his role as a police officer to take financial advantage of Webber, who died Dec. 11, 2012, at age 94. She was video recorded seven months before her death while endorsing new estate plans leaving Goodwin her waterfront home, stocks, a bond and a Cadillac.

McEachern also alleges police Capt. Michael Schwartz helped Webber file unspecified complaints with state officials against a neighbor, a former friend, and Ritzo, in "an attempt to inoculate Goodwin and Schwartz from claims of undue influence over" Webber. Schwartz is named as a $25,000 beneficiary of Webber's last and contested will and trust.

Schwartz said he was following orders to investigate Webber's claims that she was being financially exploited and that everything he uncovered was forwarded to the attorney general's office. In February, John McCormack, an attorney for the attorney general's criminal bureau, said the investigation concluded with a determination that "no criminal conduct was found."

McEachern also alleges Schwartz had a police report related to "elderly issues" at Webber's address deleted from the police department's database. Schwartz said senior police staff determined the report was "most appropriately" referred to the attorney general's office, "as opposed to being documented with a Portsmouth Police Department report."

Throughout the recorded signing of Webber's 2012 will and trust, McEachern also alleges, Holmes treated Webber "as if she were lacking in mental capacity to execute the trust and will." Holmes also ignored Webber's request that Holmes and Goodwin both serve as co-executors of her estate "and not to have Aaron Goodwin alone," according to McEachern's court filing.

Holmes' attorney, Ralph Holmes, said his client met with Webber "many times" and "throughout, she was clear and consistent about her wishes."

"She knew, understood, and was actively involved in the management of her finances," he said. "She had a feisty, fierce personality and an independent mind. We look forward to presenting our evidence to the court."

In a related document recently filed with the court, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Shriners Hospitals for Children allege Goodwin "knowingly took advantage" of Webber, and that he left a photo of himself and his children, but not his wife, at her home to unduly influence her.

Through attorney David Eby, of the Devine Millimet law firm, the pair of medical organizations is asking a judge to "set aside" the last will and trust signed by Webber because, Eby alleges, she lacked the competency to endorse them and was under Goodwin's undue influence.

The medical organizations were beneficiaries of Webber's 2009 will, which left them each one-fourth of her estate. The new and disputed will gives those parties $25,000 each, about 90 percent less.

Ritzo initiated the estate dispute and has asked the court to award him a $65,000 payment from Webber's estate for the quarter century he said he worked as her lawyer, but was not paid.

Goodwin has consistently referred to a Sept. 20, 2012, statement he wrote, saying, "The allegations that I exploited a member of our community are completely untrue." With that response, he attached letters from the state Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services, dated June 12, 2012, and Sept. 19, 2012, stating two investigations into complaints of elder exploitation by him regarding Webber were conducted and both were concluded as "unfounded."

McEachern claims Goodwin isolated Webber and did "not appreciate the risks of dementia/Alzheimer's disease, and as a consequence," her cause of death was due to lack of nutrition from starvation, malnutrition or intestinal disease.

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